Airshow 2010

Saturday, March 27, 2010 we were able to attend the first airshow Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL has hosted for three years.

Chad's brother, Todd, is stationed there at the moment while he endures "officer bootcamp". He has been in the Air Force for seven years, but had to wait till his first enlistment was up to re-enlist as an officer since he now has his Bachelor's and Master's degrees. He is now known as 2nd Lieutenant Todd McGhie. I had never seen him in his fatigues before, so it was kind of weird to walk around with him as a soldier all day. I got a lot of great pictures, so I had to make a collage of some of them to show the world what fun we had.

Kade was by far the most impressed by the airplanes and their tricks. There was a Vietnam veteran walking around taking donations for injured soldiers in exchange for little plastic flags. Todd and Chad each got one from him and gave them to the boys. Kade was so cute with his! Every time a new airplane would fly overhead he would wave it high in the air frantically so the pilots would "see" him saying hello.

The weather was perfect, breezy and sunny, around 74 degrees. It was a nice little ending to Spring Break and a great way to use Chad's free hotel points so we didn't have to drive down and back the same day. I promised Todd I wouldn't post the picture of him eating a bratwurst on Facebook for his wife to see, but I didn't promise anything about my blog! Sorry Todd.

On a funny side note: I was wondering out loud whether or not they'd play any music from Top Gun. Chad was quick to point out that they wouldn't because Top Gun was about the Navy, not the Air Force. Less than two minutes later they played a Top Gun song. HA! Chad had to save face by pointing out that one of the planes we were standing by was a Navy plane, but HA just the same!

**Keep scrolling down for a post about our Spring Break adventures.

Spring Break

Now that Spring Break is drawing to an anticlimactic close I feel free to blog about it. It was kind of a bummer that it rained several days, but we took full advantage of the sun when it did grace us with it's presence!

We are going to be joining the YMCA, but have to wait till the first of April because of the way TVA's reimbursements work. The girl at the Y that I talked to originally offered us a ten day family pass so that we could check out the facilities before we committed to a membership. I am thrilled that TVA will be paying for our membership because it is SO nice to be able to work out without Kade hanging on my leg, freezing while I am walking at the park or turning off my workout dvd...and oh yeah, FREE CHILDCARE!  I was able to go several times this week and it was great to be able to drop each kid off with their respective age groups where they could play and meet other kids.

On two of the days we went for picnics. Once at the park at the Discovery Ctr. where we (my sister, Jennifer, and her five kids) then went on a little nature walk on the path around the wetlands. It was so cute to watch Kade and "his Syssa" (my niece, Alyssa) run from side to side of the path to see the ducks swimming under the little bridge we were standing on.

The second picnic we did was at Jennifer's kid's elementary school. They have a great playground that is fenced (which is great when you have flight-risk kids like we both do) and a little pavilion that is covered. It was so easy to watch all the kids running around and it was deserted, so we didn't have to worry about bothering other people with our hoodlums. We had my nephew Campbell along that day as well because my mom got stung by a wasp on her ankle and couldn't chase him around. It was her loss since he is so stinking cute to take to the park! He wandered around saying, "Yesh!" and "Whoa!" and just being cute with his redheaded little self.

Four Eyes

A few months ago Blake came home from school waving a piece of paper that turned out to be the results of a vision screening they had done at school that day.  It said that we should probably have his eyes checked by a professional (apparently they had trained monkeys do it at the school or something) because his right eye had failed. Not quite knowing what that meant and dealing with my own medical and dental drama at the time, I did what I now feel like a total jerk for...I put it off.

We actually have pretty good vision insurance, so when I finally found the cards and papers that told me which optometrists I could take him to it was pretty cut and dry. I was a little skeptical about the whole thing considering that he never complained about being blind before they brought it to his attention and it seemed a little coincidental that he has a new buddy at school who just happens to wear glasses. Turns out he wasn't kidding...he is near sighted. 20/40, which isn't horrible, but as he gets older it will get worse.

Here he is at Walmart Vision Ctr. picking out his new specs. Doesn't he look smart?

I had to include the bottom picture because my boys are just so stinkin handsome. And I must say that it actually wasn't a horrible experience considering that we were there for an hour and a half at dinner time and Kade was stuck in the stroller in a dirty diaper cause I am a goob and left the diapers and wipes at home (oops). The lady who helped us pick Blake's glasses out even complimented me on how well behaved they were...and that is something that almost NEVER happens anymore when all three of them are together in public.

If I wasn't already on a major guilt trip for neglecting my poor blind kid's eyes for so long I might actually be a little proud of myself.

Since picking up his frames last Friday Blake is super proud of them. He wears them pretty much all the time and calls attention to them whenever he can. This said, I am just super happy that they have a year warranty on them and that they only cost me the copay to begin with!

Let Them Eat Cake

I have a new hobby. I know, I know. I have too many. But this one benefits multitudes of people with one of my favorite things next to cupcakes...CAKE!

I have been cutting my icing teeth on decorating cupcakes since I watched my sister in law, Julie, make them during my other sil's wedding weekend two years ago. I bought a few basic tips and have been known to whip out little beauties like these and these when the fancy stikes me. I would in no way call myself an expert, but I enjoy the creating and, of course, the eating process of a good cupcake now and then. 

With our Relief Society birthday thing a ma jig coming up, our R.S. Presidency offered a class in cake decorating with the intent of teaching some basics in the hope that the sisters who attended would bring in decorated cakes to celebrate the occasion. Who would I be if I didn't bite off more than I could chew at least forty or fifty times a month? You guessed it. Not me. So my sister and I and our toddlers (and an extra one just to shake things up) spent the day last Thursday decorating cakes.

I went with a Devil's Food cake mix by Duncan Hines, because while I may be nutty enough to attempt to decorate the stupid thing, there was NO way I was going to make one from scratch to boot! I did two nine inch round cakes and split both in half to make a four layer concoction of rich, velvety chocolate. Mmmmm.

The best part? For filling I could have used the buttercream (that I made from scratch cause it just tastes better), but again, who would I be? So I used a little trick Julie told me about and went for a filling of....wait for it....hot fudge. You know, like the stuff you put on a sundae. In fact that is the aisle you buy it in. I wish I had a picture of the inside...but I don't.

I went for a simplistic design in brown and pink because I pretty much never get to see any pink around my house for birthdays. The brown was not chocolate but just brown coloring.  Again, I wish I had taken pictures of that frosting during the process of trying to color it brown. It looked soooo unappealing for so long that I almost cried. Let's just say that when I went to do a few practice runs with a simple round tip I almost had a heart attack when Jennifer and I stood back and realized that little "polka dots" made with a plain round tip resemble very closely something that you wouldn't put in your mouth...unless you were a dog (I hear they do that sort of thing).  So I moved on to the shell tip and breathed a huge sigh of relief when the frosting came out looking like, well, shells.          

All in all I deem the experience a success. Think of all the money I will save with my newfound skill! Next time I might even attempt to do a flower or two...I wonder if Kade would mind flowers on his birthday cake?

Gotta Love Him

Last night we were trying to get the kids to get ready for bed and Kade was wandering around in his cute little one piece jammies. I had the sudden urge for a little cuddle time and asked him if I could have a hug and kiss. 

Chad was walking into the room as Kade climbed into my lap with his lips all puckered up. He told Kade to make sure it was a nice wet kiss. "Go ahead and slobber," he said.

The next thing I knew Kade hauled his little hand back and slapped me across the face. In the split second it took as I watched his hand coming I thought to myself, "Well, I guess slobber does sound a lot like Slap Her."

Chad and I both laughed till we cried...maybe for slightly different reasons (for a little guy he can pack quite a punch), but even now it makes me smile.

Hard to punish something like that, must be nice to be so cute that people have a hard time being mad at you for any length of time!

Cupcake Manna

On Friday night the Young Women in our ward had a spaghetti dinner fundraiser with a bake sale auction to earn money for Girl's Camp. I signed up to take noodles when I was still the Laurel advisor and decided to take some cupcakes as well. I was perusing some blogs last week and came across one where the author made cupcakes with a whole Oreo in the center and got super excited. What could be more perfect than a marriage of two of my favorite things, cupcakes and Oreos?!

I just had to make some of my own, and since I haven't done much baking lately in my quest to be ready for non-layering-of-the-clothing weather, I decided I'd take the majority of them to the bake sale.

They turned out better than I had even hoped, and, as my bro in law said, they were some pretty cool cupcakes.

I am going to take the risk of putting pictures of them up, so please don't lick your computer monitor!

 I used Betty Crocker's chocolate fudge cake mix. To get the Oreo in the center I put a little batter in the cupcake cup, put the cookie on top, then put some more batter over the cookie to almost fill the cupcake cup. I was going to make my own buttercream but had too much of a time crunch and went with some canned whipped vanilla frosting that I got almost free a few months ago. Then I simply crunched up some Oreos and sprinkled them on top for "garnish".

Did you know that a full serving of Oreos is only three cookies? This may be a warped way of looking at it, but I figure that you're good if you can only eat two of these babies, and you are under the serving allowance for Oreos. So go ahead, eat two.

Ta Da!

I finished my temple dress with two days to spare! Yippee!

I would like to thank my fellow collaborator and head-beater-against-the-wall-er MY MOM! I never could have done it without ya Toots (especially since you had to take the collar off and make a new one for me).

Pride is a sin and all that, but I am, like, "Laura Bohling excited" to have it done in time for Stake Temple Day on Saturday. (And if you don't know Laura, "you're not from around here"!)

Here it is in all it's glory (bear in mind that I am not in it and it is hanging from a white door...):

 

Holy Molars

I haven't posted any new Trevorisms lately, so I thought I'd share one that occurred yesterday afternoon.

We had just walked in the door from picking the boys up at school and Trevor came to me in the kitchen:

Trevor: "Mom, I figured out that it is the gum behind my tooth that hurts, not the tooth."

(I vaguely remember him complaining about a tooth hurting a few days ago and mentally added it to my list of appointments to schedule.)

Me: "Oh, ok. Well that must be one of your six year molars coming in."

Trevor: "Awww sweet! I never had a molar before, and now I get one since I am six!"

This was not quite the response I was expecting, so I had to laugh. I wish he'd pass on his enthusiasm for getting new teeth to his toddler cousins who are teething right now, I am sure their mothers would have a much easier time of it. Sometimes it is so refreshing to see the world through Trevor's eyes!